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JT 



THE HISTORY 



OF THE 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY 



AND 



[ts Relations fa $$lfbical Ceatjjing. 



A LECTURE, 



DELIVERED MARCH 1, 1875, AT ITS DISSOLUTION, 



BY 




WILLIAM W.'KEEN, M.D., 

Lecturer on Anatomy and Operative Surgery in the Philadelphia School of Anatomy. 



PHILADELPHI A: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1875- 



\ 






/v 



. 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress a t Washington. 



THE HISTORY 



OF THE 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF I 




AND ITS 



RELATIONS TO MEDICAL TEACHING. 



Men and institutions alike are to be judged by two 
standards : first, by the work they do themselves, and 
secondly, by the work they train others to do, and thus 
prolong indefinitely their influence. Some are great in 
the one, — solitary students, whose organizing ability and 
personal influence whether by mental or by actual contact 
is but little developed. Others live and die, leaving but 
little, it is true, that men may quote or name, but leaving 
a precious harvest of remoter influences on even a distant 
mental posterity. Some few are great in both. Great 
teachers are apt rather to excel in their personal magnetic 
influence on others, and the world owes more than it will 
ever know to their continuing but untraced influences. 

Tested by either of these rules, the " Philadelphia 
School of Anatomy" has accomplished a not ignoble 
work. Within its walls, earnest, intelligent, laborious 
men of science have taught, experimented, and investi- 

3 



4 HISTORY OF THE 

gated, and published the results of their work in many a 
book and pamphlet and scientific paper, thus fulfilling the 
first test; while to judge it by the second, it is only neces- 
sary to point to the thousands of men who have studied 
and dissected here, and here begun their scientific lives, 
and are now spread all over the country, and in fact all 
over the world, doing the best of work as practitioners, 
teachers, writers, and original investigators. 

Few schools of this sort have existed. Many, very 
many, dissecting-rooms and private anatomical schools 
have been established by individuals, to continue so long 
as they themselves chose to teach, and then to disap- 
pear ; but this one has not been the creature of any one 
man. It has outlived not only its founder, but most of 
its earlier teachers. It has never been a chartered insti- 
tution, or enjoyed the "jura, honores et privilegia ad eum 
gradum pertinentia," but it has outlasted more than one 
such in this city alone. In this country I know of no 
similar school, and the only one in Britain which has 
outstripped it either in age, in celebrity, or in influence 
was the great Windmill Street School. Founded in 1770, 
by William Hunter, it boasted the names of both the 
Hunters, of Hewson, Cruikshank, Baillie, Wilson, Brodie, 
Sir Charles Bell, Shaw, Mayo, and Caesar Hawkins, and 
came to an end in 1833, having existed for sixty-three 
years, a period only exceeding that of this school by 
eight years. 

The Philadelphia School of Anatomy was opened in 
the month of March, 1820, nine years before the lately- 
destroyed Medical Hall of the University of Pennsylva- 
nia was built, as the private anatomical school of Dr. 
Jason Valentine O'Brien Lawrance, under the name of 
the "Philadelphia Anatomical Rooms." It began at 
the upper end of Chant Street (then College Avenue), 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 5 

on the north side, in the easternmost of the two buildings, 
since used by the school. About this date, besides the 
anatomical rooms of the University, there were several 
private dissecting-rooms in this city, but they were on a 
different basis from this. In 18 18 Dr. Joseph Parrish 
opened one almost in the rear of Christ Church, and 
placed Dr. Richard Harlan in charge of it. In 1822 
Dr. Thomas T. Hewson opened another over his stable in 
Library Street, next the present Custom House, and after- 
wards, in 1829, in Blackberry Alley, in the rear of his 
house on Walnut Street above Ninth. Dr. George Mc- 
Clellan had another on Sansom Street above Sixth, and a 
fourth existed on the west side of Eighth Street above 
Jayne (then Lodge Alley), but under whose care I have 
not been able to discover. But, so far as I can learn, all 
of these were, mainly at least, for the office students of 
their proprietors, and they were all ephemeral. Law- 
rance, however, who was a great favorite with the stu- 
dents, at their request opened his school for all who might 
come, and so founded a school which has existed for fifty- 
five years, and has educated thousands of students and 
scores of teachers for their work. Lawrance was born in 
New Orleans in 1791, and graduated at the University of 
Pennsylvania in 181 5, after six years of study, at the age 
of twenty-four. He returned at once to his native city, 
and began the practice of medicine with his step-father, 
Dr. Flood. But he thirsted for the scientific advantages he 
had found in this city during his student-life, and at the 
end of three years he sacrificed all his unusually brilliant 
prospects at home, and came to Philadelphia in 1818, 
when he at once renewed his scientific labors. At that 
time the University (then our only medical school) closed 
its doors in April, and they remained unopened till No- 
vember, for our present admirable summer courses were 



6 HISTORY OF THE 

begun only about ten years ago. To fill out this long 
hiatus Lawrance opened his school and gave a course 
on Anatomy and Surgery, which began in March, had a 
recess in August, and ended in November. He gave six 
lectures in the week, and his personal qualities, as well as 
the ease and perspicuity of his style as a lecturer, made 
his school a decided success. In the fall of the same year 
he became the assistant to Dr. Gibson, the Professor of 
Surgery in the University, and in 1822 he was also made 
the assistant to Dr. Horner, then Adjunct Professor of 
Anatomy. These positions, together with that of Sur- 
geon to the Philadelphia Hospital, would have assured 
him in time a remunerative practice, but, like many 
another who has lived "the scientific life," he had to 
struggle on with but a scanty income in the earlier days 
of his practice, and he died, before the reward had come, 
a victim to his zeal and devotion. While attending the 
poor in the Ridge Road District, during an epidemic of 
typhus fever, in the summer of 1823, he who had lived 
among cadavera unharmed was attacked by the disease, 
and died in August after a short illness.* 

Like most of his followers in the school, not satisfied 
with teaching, he was also a frequent writer, as well as 
active in original investigations and experiments. In 
1821 the " Academy of Medicine" was formed " for the 
improvement of the science of medicine," and he entered 
into its work with alacrity. The discovery of the ab- 
sorbent vessels had led to the belief that they were the 
only channels of absorption until Magendie had then 
recently re-asserted absorption by other channels, espe- 
cially the veins. Dr. Chapman, then Professor of Prac- 
tice and Physiology in the University, utterly rejected 

* Obituary Notice, by Dr. Coates, Philada. Jour. Med. and Phys. 
Sci., 1823, p. 171, and Eulogium by Prof. Jackson, do., p. 376. 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 7 

these views, and at his instance, and with his generous 
pecuniary assistance in the summer of 1822, Dr. Law- 
rance, assisted by Drs. Harlan and Coates, a committee 
of the Academy of Medicine, performed upwards of ninety 
experiments on living animals. Not satisfied with these, 
with Dr. Coates, in the succeeding summer, he repeated 
and varied them in a second series of over one hundred 
experiments, and he had begun also a third to determine 
absorption by the brain, which was only cut short by his 
untimely death. The results were published in Dr. Chap- 
man's journal, "The Philadelphia Journal of the Medical 
and Physical Sciences" (iii. 273, and v. 108 and 327), and 
they not only verified but extended Magendie's views. 

In New Orleans he had recklessly exposed himself to 
yellow fever in making autopsies on putrid bodies. He 
investigated the subject still further in the epidemic of 
1820, and left the most complete record of autopsies in this 
disease then extant. So diligent a writer was he that he 
left behind him over three thousand pages of manuscript, 
much of it for use in a projected work on Pathological 
Anatomy, a subject then strangely neglected in America. 

At Dr. Lawrance's death the school passed into the 
hands of Dr. John D. Godman. He was born in 1794,* 
in Annapolis. He began life as a printer, but at the age 
of fifteen he studied medicine with Dr. Davidge, Professor 
of Anatomy in the University of Maryland. While still 
a student he lectured for his preceptor for some weeks 
with such enthusiasm and eloquence as to gain universal 
applause. Soon after his graduation, in 182 1, he was 
appointed Professor of Anatomy in the Medical College 
of Ohio, a recently-established institution, in which he 
only stayed a year. Returning to Philadelphia, he re- 

* Dr. Sewall states, 1798. Dr. S. Austin Allibone, 1794. 



8 HISTORY OF THE 

tired from practice in 1823, when he began teaching in 
the anatomical school. The very first winter he had a 
class of seventy students. As was the custom for many 
years afterwards, he gave three courses a year, viz. : the 
autumn course, twice a week from September to Novem- 
ber; the winter, four times a week from November to 
March; and the spring, twice a day (with a view to grad- 
uation) from March 1 to April 1 ; the remainder of the 
year being a vacation in teaching, but devoted to work. 
The fee for each course was ten dollars, the same as 
at present, though but two annual courses are now de- 
livered, from October till March and April till October, 
with a recess in July and August. 

Dr. Godman's style as a lecturer was characterized by 
simplicity of language, directness of statement, and fer- 
tility of illustration. His lecture-table was peculiar in its 
construction, being arranged with ratchets and screws, so 
that the whole subject, or any part of it, could be lifted 
or lowered at will. Another peculiarity, also, in which 
he prided himself, was his invariable habit of dissecting 
before the class while he lectured, no previous dissection, 
however incomplete, having been made, — a method which 
was only practicable to such an expert dissector as he, 
and before the introduction of the chloride of zinc which 
hardens the tissues so much, but which would again be 
possible if chloral be used. Dissecting wounds were then 
frequent. During his first winter several of his class suf- 
fered; his janitor, from a scratch on his thumb nearly lost 
his life, and Dr. Godman himself was poisoned three 
times, once so severely that his arm was useless for some 
weeks. All the means then in use, salt and saltpetre, 
corrosive sublimate, pyroligneous acid, etc., were poor 
preservatives, for he speaks of repeatedly " dissecting 
bodies in various states of putrefaction," and he made 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. g 

the great improvement of using whisky — an impure form 
of alcohol — for injection. Since that time chloride of 
zinc (which was introduced in this city, in 1846, by Pro- 
fessor Ellerslie Wallace, then Demonstrator of Anatomy in 
the Jefferson Medical College), alcohol, and more lately 
chloral (which I was the first to use eighteen months 
ago*), have banished dissecting wounds proper, and in 
an experience as student and teacher of fifteen years, in 
intimate acquaintance with several thousand students, I 
have never known a single instance of such a wound. 

About 1824 he established, in connection with the 
school, a reading-room and library, supplied with text- 
books and journals, and not long after, he desired to 
enlarge the sphere of the school by additional associated 
lecturers. Accordingly, he invited Dr. R. E. Griffiths 
(afterwards of the University of Virginia) to lecture on 
Practice and Materia Medica, and Dr. Isaac Hays on 
Surgery and the Eye, he himself lecturing on Anatomy 
and Surgery, — a scheme which was, however, frustrated 
by his removal. Dr. Hays was appointed to deliver the 
introductory, an unfinished production still lying in the 
drawer of the accomplished editor of the " American Jour- 
nal of the Medical Sciences." In 1826 his widely-spread 
fame had attracted attention to him so prominently that 
he was called from College Avenue to the chair of Anat- 
omy in Rutgers Medical College, recently established in 
New York City, and it was no slight compliment that he 
should be thus selectecf as a member of the faculty in a 
school which had to struggle for existence in the midst 
of bitter rivalries with far older institutions. Unfortu- 
nately, his health broke down in the midst of his second 
course, and, after vainly traveling in search of health, he 

* See my paper in the " Philadelphia Medical Times," March 21, 1874. 



io HISTORY OF THE 

settled in Germantown, where he died in 1830, in the 
serene hope of a blissful immortality. The closing scenes 
in his life were so remarkable for Christian faith, that his 
Memoir, by Prof. Sewall, has been published by the Amer- 
ican Tract Society, and is also appended to Newman 
Hall's narrative of the death of Dr. William Gordon. 

Dr. Godman's early education had been very defective ; 
but by his industry he mastered Latin, Greek, French, 
German, Danish, Italian, and Spanish, and, as Robert 
Walsh remarks, "he finally became one of the most 
accomplished general scholars and linguists, acute and 
erudite naturalists, ready, pleasing, and instructive lec- 
turers and writers of his country and era." He was ever 
ready with his pen, as well as his scalpel. In 1825 he 
became one of the editors of the "Philadelphia Journal 
of the Medical and Physical Sciences." In 1827, largely 
through his influence, the profession in New York agreed 
to support this journal if- it dropped its local name, and 
from this sprang our representative quarterly, "The Amer- 
ican Journal of the Medical Sciences. ' ' Among the exten- 
sive works he planned, while in College Avenue, none saw 
the light save the " Natural History of American Quadru- 
peds," in three volumes. His laborious and ardent pur- 
suit of knowledge is well shown by the fast that in inves- 
tigating the habits of the shrew mole he walked many 
hundred miles. He edited also the "Journal of Foreign 
Medical Science and Literature," and Sir Astley Cooper 
on Dislocations and Fractures. He translated from the 
Latin, in 1824, Scarpa on the Bones. He published two 
books, "Anatomical Investigations, comprehending De- 
scriptions of the Various Fasciae of the Human Body, the 
Discovery of the Manner in which the Pericardium is 
formed from ihe Superficial Fascia, the Capsular Liga- 
ment of the Shoulder-Joint from the Brachial Fascia, and 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. n 

the Capsular Ligament of the Hip-Joint from the Fascia 
Lata, etc." (Phila., 1824), and "Contributions to Phys- 
iological and Pathological Anatomy" (Philada., 1825), 
and papers on " The Propriety of Explaining the Actions 
of the Animal Economy by the Assistance of the Physical 
Sciences" (Phila. Jl., iii. 46), '-'On the Doctrine of Sym- 
pathy as Based on Anatomy" (do., vi. 337), "On Arterial 
and other Irregularities" (do., xii. 201) and other papers 
on the Fasciae (do., vi. 261, and viii. 87). Before he pub- 
lished his alleged discoveries as to the Fasciae, he invited 
the anatomists and surgeons of the city to a demonstration 
by actual dissection before them. 

When Dr. Godman went to Rutgers College, in 1826, 
he was succeeded by Dr. James Webster. He retained 
the school for four years, until, in 1830, he was called to 
the chair of Anatomy* in the Geneva Medical College. 
Though not so polished and industrious as Godman, he 
was a good teacher and an excellent anatomist. He was 
thoroughly devoted to the interests of his class, and at 
one time, when there was greater difficulty than usual in 
getting subjects, — a chronic ailment of dissecting-rooms, 
— he sat up night after night, watching that neither the 
University nor any private room should obtain them till 
he was supplied, and he gained his point. His literary 
labors while here were limited to editing the "American 
Medical Recorder," from 1827 to 1829, when it also 
merged into the "American Journal of the Medical Sci- 
ences," and, I believe, also another rather pugilistic jour- 
nal, which, however, was short lived. 

This brings us down to living persons ; and my account 
must now deal rather with narrative than criticism. After 
Dr. Webster left, the rooms were vacant for a year, — the 
only hiatus in their history. 

In 1831, three years after his graduation from the Uni- 



I2 HISTORY OF THE 

versity, Dr. Joseph Pancoast re-opened the rooms, and in 
the seven years he lectured here he laid the foundation 
for his subsequent brilliant career both as anatomist and 
surgeon. He gave the usual three annual courses which 
Godman had established. No other lectures were given 
in the building during his administration. In 1838 he 
was elected Professor of Anatomy in the Jefferson Medi- 
cal College, in which position his fame has not been 
limited even by the wide bounds of the Republic. His 
pen also was not idle during these years. In his opening 
year he translated Lobstein on the Sympathetic Nerve, 
from the Latin ; later, he published Manec on the Sym- 
pathetic and on the Cerebro-Spinal System in Man, 
edited Quain's Anatomical Plates in quarto, and fitly 
closed his career in the Avenue by preparing a new 
edition of Horner's Anatomy, in two volumes. 

On the promotion of Dr. Pancoast to the Jefferson, in 
1838, Dr. Justus Dunott succeeded him, and lectured 
about three years, when Dr. Joshua M. Allen became his 
associate. Up to 1839 the Philadelphia Anatomical 
Rooms consisted solely of the east building, the other 
being a store-house. Now, the two buildings become 
sometimes rival schools, but for the most part united 
under one head. In 1838 Dr. James McClintock fitted 
up a dissecting-room at the south-east corner of Eighth 
and Walnut Streets, and called it the " Philadelphia School 
of Anatomy." In the spring of 1839, his next-door neigh- 
bor, the late Hon. William M. Meredith, vigorously re- 
monstrated with him on account of the stench from his 
rooms, the cause being a lion's carcass, of which it could 
not be said, as of Samson's lion, "Out of the strong 
cometh forth sweetness." Dr. McClintock then rented 
and .fitted up the western building, threw the second and 
third stories together as the lecture-room, in which we are 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 



*3 



now assembled, but very different from its present arrange- 
ment, which was made by Allen at a later date. The 
lecturer stood at the south, or Chant Street, end, and 
under the rising seats slept the janitor and his family, the 
first floor, afterwards the Museum, and now the dead- 
room, serving for parlor, dining-room, and kitchen. 
Moreover, at the Chant Street end, both in the second 
and third stories, was a small room, so that the lecture- 
room was much smaller than it is at present. Dr. 
McClintock gathered here a very large class by his bril- 
liant demonstrations, until, in 1841, he was elected Pro- 
fessor of Anatomy in the Vermont Academy of Medicine 
(afterwards Castleton Medical College), and also in the 
Berkshire Medical Institution, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 
Dunott and Allen (who had been McClintock's student 
and demonstrator) then occupied both buildings, under 
the name of the Philadelphia School of Anatomy. Soon 
after this (precisely when I have been unable to discover), 
Dr. Allen was left in sole charge, and from this date 
until 1852 he conducted a most successful school. While 
he was lacking in scholarship and cultivation, he insisted 
strenuously on neat dissection, and was clear and prac- 
tical as a teacher, and many men still recall his instruc- 
tion with great vividness and pleasure. While here, he 
published his Dissector's Manual. One incident de- 
mands notice as an innovation up to that time unheard 
of. On a hot July day, about 1843 or '44? one °f our 
distinguished physiologists informs me, being himself 
then a student here, he entered the room adjoining 
the lecture-room, and was surprised to see in that place 
a bonnet and pair of gloves, and in a moment to hear 
the rustling of a lady's dress. Not that the presence 
of females was so rare in the school, but they scarcely 
needed so elaborate a toilet. Peering cautiously into the 



14 



HISTORY OF THE 



lecture-room, as he then well might, he saw a lady at 
work at the table dissecting a negro subject. She after- 
wards dissected in the room above with the ordinary 
medical classes. "It was probably," says her sister, 
"the first time that a woman had dissected as a medical 
student." She had read with the late Prof. S. H. Dick- 
son, of the Jefferson, then in Charleston, South Carolina, 
was residing in the family of Dr. William Elder, after- 
wards studied and graduated in medicine at Geneva, and 
is now practising her profession successfully in the city of 
New York. Two ladies have dissected here (privately, 
however) under my own supervision, one, Frau Hirsch- 
feldt, who is now practising dentistry with great success 
in Berlin ; the other, a young lady who desired to perfect 
herself as an anatomical artist, and who made many of 
my drawings. In the last two winter sessions, also, very 
many ladies were members of my classes in Artistic Anat- 
omy, and were greatly interested in the dissection of the 
muscles. 

In 1842 Dr. William R. Grant, who had been Demon- 
strator of Anatomy at the Jefferson, held the western 
building for a year, when, on his becoming Professor of 
Anatomy and Physiology in the Pennsylvania College, he 
relinquished it to Dr. McClintock, and from 1843 t0 x ^47 
the two buildings were again under separate control, the 
eastern being occupied by Allen, the western by McClin- 
tock. In 1844 Dr. McClintock enlarged the school, 
having lectures on Practice by Dr. James X. McCloskey, 
and on Materia Medica by Dr. Jackson Van Stavern. 
With more mature plans, in the spring of 1847 he secured 
the charter of the Philadelphia Medical College, and 
during that summer their lectures were given partly in 
this building, partly in the School of Pharmacy, then in 
Filbert Street above Seventh. Its Faculty consisted of 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 15 

Dr. McClintock, on Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery; 
Jesse R. Burden, on Materia Mediea; Thomas D. Mitchell, 
afterwards of the Jefferson, on Practice and Obstetrics; 
and William H. Allen, now President of Girard College, 
on Chemistry. In the fall of 1847 tne Philadelphia Col- 
lege removed to Fifth Street below Walnut, and both the 
buildings again came under Dr. Allen's control until 1852, 
when he was elected Professor of Anatomy in the Penn- 
sylvania Medical College. 

A name familiar to all present then follows, — Dr. D. 
Hayes Agnew. He assumed the responsibilities of the 
school in 1852, and held it for ten years. During this 
period, beginning with but nine students, such was the 
prosperity of the school that he threw the small room in 
the third story into the lecture-room, to accommodate the 
crowds of students who gathered almost nightly to hear 
his lucid demonstrations. I well remember many a dys- 
peptic supper hastily swallowed that I might be early in 
attendance and so secure a good seat, and much of my 
own success is due to his example and training. Dr. 
Agnew also altered the second story of the eastern build- 
ing for his Operative Surgery courses, in which his 
classes were large. While teaching here he published 
his "Dissector's Manual," his lecture on the career of 
Baron Larrey, a valuable and prolonged series of papers 
in the "Medical and Surgical Reporter," on Anatomy 
in its Relations to Medicine and Surgery, and prepared a 
work on the Fasciae of the human body, which, however, 
he never published. 

Although not a part of the proper history of the Phila- 
delphia School of Anatomy, yet, as connected with the 
teaching done in the Avenue, it gives me pleasure to allude 
to the successful school established on the opposite side 
of the street by Dr. William S. Forbes. In 1856, while 



1 6 HISTORY OF THE 

Dr. Agnew was teaching, Dr. Forbes opened his school, 
which was designed largely to give facilities for dissection 
to the students of the dental colleges, in one of which he 
was Professor of Anatomy. He continued to teach for 
twelve years, a period longer than any other teacher in 
the Avenue. 

In 1862 Dr. Agnew relinquished the anatomical de- 
partment to Dr. James E. Garretson, who had been his 
Demonstrator for five years. Dr. Agnew retained the 
course in Operative Surgery for a year, when he became 
Demonstrator of Anatomy, and afterwards Professor of 
Surgery in the University. He was succeeded in the de- 
partment of Operative Surgery from 1864-67 by Dr. J. 
M. Boisnot. After two years of successful teaching of 
Anatomy Dr. Garretson withdrew, on his election to 
the chair of Surgery in the Philadelphia Dental College. 
During his connection with the school, though he pub- 
lished nothing, his pen was not idle, for he has since 
given us his large work on " Oral Surgery," and who does 
not know the genial and philosophic "John Darby"? 

In the summer of 1865 Dr. James P. Andrews, now of 
Lancaster County, assumed the duties of lecturer, but his 
health failing, he was succeeded in the fall by Dr. R. S. 
Sutton. After a year's teaching, Dr. Sutton removed to 
Pittsburg, and on October 22, 1866, I gave the first 
lecture of my life to a class of seven students, of whom 
two were "capita mortua." With the present lecture, 
after nine years of unceasing labor, my connection with 
the school, and the school itself, ceases, since the prop- 
erty will be occupied by the new Post-office, and science 
will yield to at least one form of literature. 

It ill becomes one to speak of himself, but I may per- 
haps be permitted to state the following facts : I have 
lectured here longer than any of my predecessors, Allen 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 17 

and Agnew only excepted ; I have given nine winter and 
five summer courses on Descriptive and Surgical Anato- 
my, three summer courses on Clinical or Surface An- 
atomy, two courses on Artistic Anatomy, and thirteen 
courses on Operative Surgery, besides private courses to 
numerous individual students and graduates. I have had 
nearly fifteen hundred students, of whom at least five are 
already professors in medical colleges, and one has opened 
the first dissecting-room ever established in Japan. They 
have come from the District of Columbia, and every State 
in the Union, except New Mexico and Nebraska, and 
from fourteen foreign countries, as follows : Canada, 
Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, New Brunswick, 
Cuba, Porto Rico, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Den- 
mark, Norway, Prussia, Switzerland, and England. 

From 1866 to 1870 I occupied only the western build- 
ing, Dr. Richardson having the lower story of the other 
for his Quiz Class, and Dr. H. Lenox Hodge, from 1868 
to 1870, the upper story for his courses in Operative Sur- 
gery, but in order to accommodate my increasing classes 
I was obliged, in 1870, to obtain the use of both build- 
ings, and later still further to enlarge the lecture-room 
by placing the gallery over my head, while many, even 
then, were unable to obtain seats. During this time, 
also, I have published a series of Clinical Charts of the 
Human Body, a sketch of the Early History of Practical 
Anatomy, and a pamphlet on the Anatomical, Patholog- 
ical, and Surgical Uses of Chloral (which I deem my 
most important contribution to practical anatomy).* I 
have edited, also, Flower's Diagrams of the Nerves, and 
Heath's Practical Anatomy, and have published anatomi- 



* At the close of the lecture, a subject injected six weeks before with 
one-quarter of a pound of chloral in six pints of water was shown, and 
its advantages fully illustrated. 

2 



1 8 HISTORY OF THE 

cal and surgical papers on a new diagnostic sign of Frac- 
ture of the Fibula, on the Anatomy of the Optic Chiasm 
(with Dr. William Thomson), on the Ossification of the 
Atlas Vertebra, on a case of Asymmetry of the Skull, on 
a Malformation of the Brain, on the Physiology of the 
Inferior Laryngeal Nerves and the Intercostal Muscles, 
in a case of judicial hanging, and numerous other general 
medical articles, besides gathering the materials for several 
other papers and perhaps more extended publications. 

But no history of this school would be complete did it 
not include a fitting notice of the teachers who have been 
associated with it. It has held a peculiar relation to 
medical teaching in this city, and a very large part of its 
usefulness has consisted in the fact that it has afforded a 
field in which any eager aspirant for medical honors 
might enter without much risk as a "free lance." Med- 
ical teaching on other subjects is rarely directly remu- 
nerative. The expenses of rooms properly cared for, and 
of the means of illustration, so far outstrip the income, 
especially at the outset, when the lecturer is unknown, 
that few can afford the pecuniary risk of failure, and 
those few scarcely ever care to try. But a successful an- 
atomist, since his classes are large, can readily meet the 
expenses of such a school, and thus afford to furnish 
accommodations for private teachers at a moderate sum, 
which is often merely nominal. It has always, therefore, 
been my own policy to encourage all such private teach- 
ing by charging a sum barely sufficient to cover my ex- 
penses, feeling that thereby I gave generous aid to the 
cause of medical teaching and to the teacher himself, and 
yet indirectly benefitted myself by making the school by 
so much the more a medical centre. Moreover, if one 
began and succeeded, he made a reputation, and the re- 
wards that are sure to follow faithful and successful teach- 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 



J 9 



ing came in due time ; while if he failed here, he was but 
little the loser whether in pocket or in fame. But if one 
tries his "'prentice hand" as an official "Lecturer'' in 
one of our medical schools and publicly fails, it damages 
him almost beyond recovery. In this way the Philadel- 
phia School of Anatomy has been a fertile foster-mother 
of youthful teachers, of whom many are now among the 
brightest ornaments of our profession. 

It has always been the habit in the medical profession, 
as in the legal, for the student to enter the office of 
a preceptor, formerly as an "articled pupil," more re- 
cently as an "office student," and by the payment of an 
annual sum — for many years one hundred dollars — he 
obtained more or less instruction according to his pre- 
ceptor's ability, zeal, and conscientiousness. The more 
distinguished men gathered many such pupils, and when 
the labor of personal instruction became too onerous, 
they associated others with them in the duties of office 
instruction. Gradually the habit of lecturing grew up 
among them, and thus arose the numerous associations for 
medical instruction by lectures and by a daily "Quiz," 
which have been so prominent and have done such good 
work in our Philadelphia medical teaching. 

Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, so far as I can learn, was the 
first in this city thus to enlarge the facilities for his office- 
students. In 1817 he associated with himself Dr. Horner 
(on Anatomy), and they occupied a room over his stable 
(a rather favorite place, it would seem, for anatomists), 
in the rear of his house, on the south side of Walnut 
Street, the second door below Eighth. In 1819-20 Dr. 
Dewees joined them, and soon after, Drs. Hodge, Bell, 
Jackson, J. K. Mitchell, and for some time Dr. T. P. 
Harris. This afterwards became the "Medical Insti- 
tute," obtained a charter, and erected a building in 



20 HISTORY OF THE 

Locust Street above Eleventh, afterwards occupied, from 
1846 to 1848, by the " Franklin Medical College." 

In 181 8 Dr. Joseph Parrish began a similar association 
with Dr. George B. Wood, and afterwards also Drs. Rich- 
ard Harlan and Shoemaker. From this, in 1830, arose 
the "Philadelphia Association for Medical Instruction," 
consisting of Drs. Parrish, Wood, Samuel George Morton, 
John Rhea Barton, and Franklin Bache, who were joined 
at various times by Jacob Randolph, W. W. Gerhard, 
Joseph Pancoast, and William Rush. For six years the 
association continued its labors ; but, then, as some grew 
in years and practice, and others were absorbed by the 
colleges, it was dissolved. The "School of Medicine" 
was a third similar organization formed about the same 
time, in which were Drs. William Gibson, Jacob Ran- 
dolph, B. H. Coates, Rene La Roche, John Hopkinson, 
and Charles D. Meigs. Meigs and Bache held a peculiar 
relation, for Bache, of the "Philadelphia Association," 
admitted the students of the "School of Medicine" to 
his lectures on Chemistry, and Meigs, of the rival school, 
in return, admitted the students of both to his lectures 
on Obstetrics. Nearly all of those I have named became 
professors in the University or the Jefferson, and of them 
all, alas, only George B. Wood, Joseph Pancoast, and B. 
H. Coates survive ! 

In 1842, while Dr. Joshua M. Allen was at the head of 
the Philadelphia School of Anatomy, the second "Phila- 
delphia Association for Medical Instruction," generally 
known as the "Summer Association," was formed, for 
the purpose of giving lectures during the long recess in 
the colleges from March to November. It consisted, 
originally, of Drs. John F. Meigs, on Obstetrics ; Joshua 
M. Wallace (the brother of Prof. Ellerslie Wallace), on 
Surgery ; Robert Bridges, on Chemistry ; Francis Gurney 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 2 I 

Smith, Jr., on Physiology; and Joshua M. Allen, on 
Anatomy. The lectures were given in the eastern build- 
ing till about 1847, when they changed to the western 
one, and in 1854 to Butler's Avenue, in the rear of the 
Jefferson Medical College. Here they continued till 
i860, when they disbanded. In 1845, when Dr. Meigs 
began to lecture on Diseases of Children, Dr. D. H. 
Tucker followed on Obstetrics, and, in 1850, on his re- 
moval to the Richmond Medical College, as Professor of 
Obstetrics, he was followed by Dr. William V. Keating. 
At Dr. J. M. Wallace's death, the surgical lectureship 
was filled by the appointment of Dr. J. H. B. McClellan 
in 185 1, Dr. Addinell Hewson in 1853, and Dr. John H. 
Brinton in i860. Dr. Bridges, though elected to the 
College of Pharmacy meantime, retained his lectureship 
on Chemistry from 1842 to i860, — the only constituent 
member of the Association who remained to its close. 
In Anatomy, when Dr. Allen became Professor of Anat- 
omy in the Pennsylvania College, in 1852, Dr. Ellerslie 
Wallace, then also Demonstrator of Anatomy, and since 
Professor of Obstetrics, in the Jefferson, became his suc- 
cessor. Dr. F. G. Smith continued to lecture on Phys- 
iology till 1852, when he was elected to the Professorship 
of Physiology in the Pennsylvania College, and was suc- 
ceeded by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell till i860. The first 
lecturer on Practice was Dr. Alfred Stille, who joined 
the Association in 1844, and resigned in 1850, on account 
of ill health. In 1854 he became Professor of Practice 
in Pennsylvania College, and now fills so admirably the 
same chair in the University. He was succeeded by Dr. 
John F. Meigs from 1850 to 1854, and he, again, in 1855, 
by Dr. Moreton Stille, the brother of Alfred Stille, and 
already widely known as the joint author of ''Wharton 
& Stille's Medical Jurisprudence." A career of great 



22 HISTORY OF THE 

prominence was then suddenly cut short by a sad acci- 
dent. A decomposing subject left in the lecture-room 
from Friday till Monday, in July, so poisoned the air 
that Stille and several of the class were made faint and 
sick. Stille lectured as long as he could, but finally was 
compelled to yield, went home, and, after a brief illness, 
died from pyaemia. The next year the place was filled 
by Dr. J. M. Da Costa, now Professor of Practice at the 
Jefferson. Dr. Francis West — who will forget his fine face 
and courtly manners? — lectured on Materia Medica from 
1844 till the last year, when Dr. James Darrach succeeded 
him. On Diseases of Children Dr. John F. Meigs was the 
only lecturer from 1840 to 1850, and on Medical Juris- 
prudence, Dr. Edward Hartshorne from 1847 to 1849. 

Besides their duties in the association, several of the 
members gave also independent courses. Thus Dr. Brin- 
ton gave private courses on Operative Surgery, and lec- 
tured on general surgical subjects from 1853 to 1861, and 
laid the foundation for his later reputation, both as Clini- 
cal Surgeon to the Philadelphia Hospital and Lecturer 
on Operative Surgery in the Jefferson. He occupied the 
third story or garret of the eastern building, a room 
which was destroyed when a new and flat roof was put on 
the building, about 1864. Many a night did I dissect 
there as a student till midnight, with no companions 
save the cadavera and the hungriest of rats. They were 
scarcely afraid of the living, much less of the dead. When 
Dr. Mitchell was experimenting here on his snakes, wish- 
ing sometimes to work till late into the night, and his 
stock of candles being low, he would only light a frugal 
stump when an observation had to be made and recorded. 
In the intervals of darkness the rats would swarm all over 
the room and the tables, and scarcely scamper away when 
weird-ly lighted up by the great bowl of his meerschaum. 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 23 

So hungry were they that on one occasion, when one of 
my fellow-office-students fell into an alcoholic sleep on 
the table, mistaking him for a cadaver (for Dr. Brinton 
always used alcohol for preserving his subjects), they 
gnawed through his boots, and only awakened him when 
they had made slight progress on his toes. 

While at work here Dr. Brinton repeated Suchet's ex- 
periments on tanning muscles after injecting gelatine, dis- 
covered the method of preserving fresh preparations by 
applying gutta-percha dissolved in benzole, dissected over 
one hundred sterna for his paper on Dislocations of the 
Sternum, and discovered the valve in the right spermatic 
vein, one of the few discoveries recorded in macroscopic 
human anatomy of late years. 

Dr. Da Costa also gave private courses on Physical 
Diagnosis from 1854 to 1863. Such was his reputation 
when I attended them, a year before their close, that he 
was compelled to refuse many anxious applicants, lest the 
classes should become unwieldy for that method of per- 
sonal instruction, and such his diligence that here were 
begun the numerous observations for his unrivaled later 
work on Diagnosis. Here, also, most of the actual labor- 
atory and experimental work was done for papers on the 
Pathology of Acute Pneumonia, the Effects of Respiration 
on the size and the position of the Heart, on Blowing 
Sounds in the Pulmonary Artery, on the Morbid An- 
atomy and Symptoms of Cancer of the Pancreas, and on 
Serous Apoplexy. At the same time, also, he translated 
Kollicker's Microscopical Anatomy from the German. 

The front room on the lower floor, and afterwards that 

in the second story, were occupied by Dr. S. Weir 

Mitchell as his Physiological Laboratory. Besides his 

lectures on Physiology in the association, from 1853 to 

i860, he gave, in 1856, the first purely experimental 

** 



24 HISTORY OF THE 

course on Physiology in the city, and also made in these 
rooms nearly all of his extremely important physiologi- 
cal experiments and discoveries. Here (for sentimental 
philo-canism was not yet a feminine fashion), dogs, cats, 
pigeons, goats, guinea-pigs, turtles, rabbits, ducks, geese, 
mice, rats, and last, but not least, sundry snakes, copper- 
heads, moccasins, and rattle-snakes were his familiars 
within, while gaping crowds of swarming children with 
eyes and ears intent were only too familiar without. Be- 
ginning in 1853, his first important paper was the joint 
work of Dr. William A. Hammond and himself on Corro- 
val and Vao. Then followed his unexpected and valuable 
discovery of Saccharine or Diabetic Cataract. From 1857 
to 1861 he was engaged more or less continuously on his 
well-known work on Snakes and Snake-venom, — a work 
which, after a series of years, the English observers have 
taken up in India with the result of confirming and 
extending, but in no important particular of reversing 
his own conclusions. Among them the most brilliant 
was his discovery of the corroding action of the venom 
on the blood-vessels. In i860 and 1861 I was his assist- 
ant, and again in 1867 and 1868 in renewed experiments 
on the same subject. Many are the amusing stories that 
could be told of such somewhat perilous work; of the 
rude and insecure boxes in which they were received, 
sometimes a section from the hollow trunk of a tree 
battened at each end, with scanty nails; of the suddenly- 
discovered escape of a snake or two on more than one 
occasion, — a discovery none the less disquieting from the 
fact that no antidote had as yet been among the scientific 
harvest; or of the janitor who, one night, when locking 
up, being slightly mystified by sundry potations, and 
treading on a headless snake who rattled vigorously and 
struck him with his stump, ran to a brick pile near by, 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 



25 



and, filling his arms with the bats, let fly at random into 
the dark room (he had more than St. Patrick's aversion 
to snakes), and bottles, crucibles, costly thermometers, 
and two weeks of carefully prepared results were in the 
morrow's woeful count of cost. Many were the assistants 
who came, and, not liking the work, quietly disappeared ; 
one of them, however, rather hurriedly, for he" sat down 
all unconscious upon a lighted cigar, and leaning rudely 
against the- snake-box started them to rattling just as the 
cigar burned through, when, leaping up in affright, he ran 
away, crying, "I'm bitten ! I'm bitten !" and was seen 
no more. On another occasion, just as the snake was 
about to strike him, a dog tore himself loose and went 
flying out Chant Street, dragging a long chain behind, 
while the experimenters, with their long black gowns 
flying all abroad, rushed after him in the vain hope of a 
successful chase. It so happened that they were just 
raising the statue of Franklin into place in front of the 
Franklin Market, now the Mercantile Library, and among 
the lookers on, leaning against the church, was one of 
Penn's most placid followers. The swaying chain coiled 
itself like another snake around the leg of the unsuspect- 
ing observer, and arrested the dog's rapid flight to the 
detriment of his friend's centre of gravity. But the sight 
of his pursuers lending vigor to his struggles, with a yelp 
and a tug he rasped the cuticle off his groaning victim 
and flew up Tenth Street. Two weeks afterwards the 
physiologist and the canine encountered each other on 
the street. The recognition was mutual, and, as the dog 
darted away, his owner remarked to a friend alongside, 
"He's gone on werry queer since he got back!" The 
speedy disposition of so many uninjected animals in sum- 
mer, when the work was mainly done, presented many 
serious obstacles, until, at last, during the regime of one 



26 HISTORY OF THE 

ingenious assistant (who generally superintended such 
matters), nothing was heard of them either in the way of 
trouble or expense. On inquiry, a true stroke of genius 
was discovered. The baggage trains of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad used to go out Market Street at night, and he 
simply tied them by a rope to the tail of the train. 
Those dogs never needed sepulture. 

It can now be easily understood how not so much even 
as a chip has ever been stolen from me with such occu- 
pants in the building, both dead and alive, although the 
inhabitants of Chant Street, when I first began, consisted 
largely, as Bret Harte has described them, of "blazing 
ruins," and though the door has often gone unlocked and 
the cellar was almost always accessible. Even a former 
office-boy (of African extraction) could never be induced 
to put foot inside the building, alleging that " he'd heerd 
of their layin' for colored boys before now !" 

After finishing his investigations on serpents, Dr. 
Mitchell experimented largely on Woorara, and published 
a paper on the results. In 1862-63 he investigated the 
Chelonia, and found that their respiration was mammalian 
in type, and not batrachian, and, with Dr. George R. 
Morehouse, he discovered the extraordinary chiasm in 
their inferior laryngeal nerves, the only chiasm known, 
save the optic. In 1867-68 he investigated especially 
the effects of extreme cold on the nerves and nerve- 
centres, and in 1869 his extended experiments on the 
cerebellum were made, when he preserved a pigeon with- 
out any cerebellum for the before-unexampled period of 
nine months. 

No more brilliant corps of teachers, perhaps, has ever 
been gathered in this city than this old "Summer Asso- 
ciation." Tucker became Professor of Obstetrics first in 
Franklin College, and then in Richmond ; Keating went 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 



27 



to the Jefferson ; Bridges to the Franklin College and the 
College of Pharmacy; Allen, as Professor of Anatomy, 
to the Pennsylvania College ; Ellerslie Wallace, first as 
Demonstrator of Anatomy, and then Professor of Ob- 
stetrics, to the Jefferson ; Francis Gurney Smith, to the 
chair of Physiology in the Pennsylvania College, and then 
the University of Pennsylvania; Alfred Stille, to that of 
Practice in Pennsylvania College, and then to the Uni- 
versity ; Da Costa, to the chair of Practice in the Jeffer- 
son ; Mitchell here formed that habit of exact scientific 
observation and sagacious deduction which has given him 
a reputation on two continents, while Meigs, McClellan, 
Hewson, Brinton, Darrach, and Hartshorne have all be- 
come well-known hospital teachers and practitioners. 
As writers, too, during this period, few men have been 
busier. Besides the books and papers I have already 
noted among the direct results of their labors here, I 
mention the following. Dr. Tucker wrote his Principles 
and Practice of Midwifery. Dr. Alfred Stille published a 
part of his lectures under the title of Elements of General 
Pathology, while the lectures on Practice most carefully 
and " elaborately written out have formed the foundation 
of all those upon the same subject which he has since de- 
livered." He also published his "Medical Institutions 
of the United States" and his " Report on Medical Litera- 
ture," and with Dr. Meigs translated Andral's "Patho- 
logical Hematology." Dr. John F. Meigs published his 
lectures on the Diseases of Children, the well-thumbed 
book of multitudes of practitioners, now grown to be a 
most portly volume. Dr. F. G. Smith translated Barth & 
Roget's Manual of Auscultation and Percussion, and edited 
Carpenter's various physiological works, Kirkes & Paget's 
Physiology, and Churchill on Obstetrics. Dr. Keating ed- 
ited Ramsbotham's Obstetrics, and Churchill on Children ; 



28 HISTORY OF THE 

Dr. Bridges edited Fowne's Chemistry, and Graham's 
Chemistry ; Dr. Hewson edited Mackenzie on the Eye, 
and Wilde on the Ear, and all of them wrote numerous 
papers, reviews, etc., and practiced medicine into the 
bargain ! Truly they were busy men. 

In 1855, during Dr. Agnew's administration, another 
association was started, which, like the one just named, 
was called after an older one, already noticed, the 
"Pennsylvania Academy of Medicine." It consisted of 
Drs. W. W. Gerhard, Henry H. Smith, D. Hayes Agnew, 
Bernard Henry, R. A. F. Penrose, and Mr. Edward Par- 
rish, the son of Dr. Joseph Parrish, who lectured on 
Practical Pharmacy, and the next year they were joined 
also by Dr. Edward Shippen. For two years they con- 
tinued as an association of lecturers, then Drs. Gerhard, 
Agnew, Penrose, and Mr. Parrish went on as a Quiz 
association for a year, when they disbanded. Dr. Agnew 
went on with his usual courses in the School of Anatomy, 
and Dr. Penrose continued to lecture here on Obstetrics 
until called to the University in 1863. They were equally 
fortunate in promotion with the members of the other 
association, for four of the seven went to the University 
as professors : Gerhard on Clinical Medicine, Henry H. 
Smith and Agnew as Professors of Surgery, and Penrose 
of Obstetrics. Mr. Parrish, in an Introductory to the 
course of 1857, " On Summer Medical Teaching in Phila- 
delphia," has given the only brief sketch of the Philadel- 
phia School of Anatomy and some of the associations and 
teachers I have noticed, that has ever appeared. 

Besides these distinct associations for lecturing, numer- 
ous other independent experimenters and lecturers have 
availed themselves of the facilities it afforded, scanty as 
they have often been, for their work. Before my own 
day I have been able to learn the names of only a few ; 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 



29 



but these are of interest. In 1849 Dr. Brown-Sequard 
gave his first lecture in America in this room to Dr. Francis 
Gurney Smith's class in physiology in the " Summer Asso- 
ciation." It was on the Physiology of the Nervous Sys- 
tem ; and during the lecture, with that extraordinory 
manual dexterity for which he is noted, he cut the anterior 
and posterior roots of the spinal nerves in some frogs, and 
demonstrated the cross-sensibility of the spinal marrow by 
sections of its lateral halves in the guinea-pig. This was 
followed by a course to the physicians of the city. His 
next course was given in the Franklin Institute. About 
this time, also, Dr. John Hastings of the Navy gave some 
lectures on yellow fever, apropos of the then-existing epi- 
demic, based on his personal observations during the Mex- 
ican War. In 1859, Dr. S. W. Gross, while one of Dr. 
Agnew's demonstrators, gave courses on Operative Sur- 
gery and Surgical Anatomy, and again in 1866-67. In 
i860, and for some time afterwards, Dr. John W. Lodge 
gave courses in Experimental Physiology in the summer, 
and on Urinary Pathology in the winter. In Obstetrics, 
Dr. J. M. Corse also lectured here. In 1864-67 Dr. J. 
M. Boisnot, and also, in 1865-66, Dr. J. Bernard Brin- 
ton, each gave courses in Operative Surgery. 

Since I have had charge of the school, Dr. Isaac Ott 
has experimented on cocaine and other poisons, and Dr. H. 
C. Wood, Jr., on the physiological action of the alkaloids 
of veratrum viride, until my landlord complained of the 
barking dogs with such energy that I was fearful of sum- 
mary ejectment. I well remember, too, among other 
odors, the persistent, and it seemed almost imperishable, 
smell from a seal which Dr. Harrison Allen dissected here 
some years ago. Besides these, the following regular 
courses of lectures have been given here, — on Obstetrics, 
Dr. F. H. Getchell and W. F. Jenks ; on the Microscope, 



30 HISTORY OF THE 

Dr. James Tyson ; on Operative Surgery, Dr. Hodge gave 
independent courses, from 1868 to 1870, in the eastern 
building ; on Bandaging and Fractures, Drs. J. Ewing 
Mears and O. H. Allis ; on Physical Diagnosis, Drs. 
John S. Parry, O. P. Rex, Stanley Smith, and Hamilton 
Osgood ; on Venereal Diseases, Dr. William G. Porter ; 
on Ophthalmology, Drs. George C. Harlan, George Straw- 
bridge, and W. W. McClure ; and on Laryngoscopy, Dr. 
J. Solis Cohen. For a number of years, also, the Naval 
Examining Board examined all their candidates for ad- 
mission and promotion here. Of the various quiz asso- 
ciations I have been able to learn but little beyond my 
personal knowledge. That which followed the Academy 
of Medicine I have already named. In 1837, Dr. E. G. 
Davis quizzed on all the branches himself, as I learn from 
an old circular, as also, at first, was Dr. D. D. Richard- 
son's habit. Dr. Richardson's quiz lasted from i860 to 
1 87 1, and in the last few years he was assisted by Drs. 
Boisnot, Cohen, and Witmer. He had as many as eighty 
pupils. From 1866-68, I quizzed with Drs. Duer, Dun- 
glison, and Maury; 1868-69, with Drs. Warder, Mc- 
Arthur, Leaman, and Mears; and from 1869 to 1872 
with Drs. Hutchins, Allis, Rex, Getchell, Leffman, and 
Loughlin. This winter Drs. Wilson, West, Greene, and 
Osgood occupied this room. From 1869 to 1871, also, 
the eastern building was occupied by the quiz of Drs. 
Willard, Curtin, Cheston, Jenks, Wilson, and Githens. 

Of these numerous medical men many have already 
attained distinction ; the rest deserve it, and with years 
no doubt will win it. 

The Janitors deserve a passing word. They have been 
mostly apostolic in name (as well as somewhat over- 
obedient to the apostolic injunction to Timothy), for two 
Johns and two Jameses have occupied the post for some 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 



31 



forty years of its history. One, whom most of the older 
graduates will remember, was here for about twenty-five 
years. Crabbed and cross, yet a favorite withal, versed 
in all subject-lore beyond his fellows, he was only once 
baffled. When the two buildings were rivals and subjects 
unusually scarce, a fresh cadaver was stolen from this 
building at night and conveyed across the roof to the 
other. Being too closely guarded for another Stygian 
journey back, and the offense not being indictable at law, 
even he was foiled. He alternated from being a whisky- 
barrel in the morning to a barrel of whisky in the even- 
ing, and it was always supposed that he died of sponta- 
neous combustion, like old Krooks in "Bleak House," 
till I learned lately that he stuck to his colors to the last, 
and died from drinking the alcohol from specimens. 

Such, in brief, is the history of this now somewhat 
venerable school, and of the many teachers associated 
with it.* I can count eighty-five teachers who have won 
their spurs in its lecture-rooms, formed here their habits 
of thought, style of lecturing, methods of scientific re- 
search, and gained their early fame as writers and 
teachers, so that twenty-seven have become professors in 
sixteen medical colleges, here and elsewhere, and fifty- 
one hospital and clinical physicians, surgeons, obstetri- 
cians, etc., of distinction. Thirty-two books have been 
written or edited, eleven pamphlets, and not less than 
thirty papers of value have been published by its various 
teachers. Its Assistant Demonstrators are too numerous 
for me even to mention. Its students I cannot trace. 
Most of them are personally unknown to me. But this 
I know, that, spread all over the world, doing faithfully 



* Mr. F. Gutekunst, 712 Arch Street, has photographed the building 
for any who may desire to obtain such a memento. 



3 2 



PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY. 



their daily work, in relieving the suffering, soothing the 
dying, helping the poor, assuaging the pestilence that 
walketh in darkness, improving the public health, ad- 
vancing the domain of pure and applied science, teaching 
earnestly its results to thousands of eager students, who, 
in turn, will swell their noble ranks, promoting in general 
the moral and material welfare of mankind, some in lofty, 
some in lowly station, they will confess that here they first 
developed their scientific tastes and aspirations ; here they 
were taught to look beyond the lower to the highest and 
noblest aims of our profession ; here they first caught the 
inspiration that has made them what they are ; and that 
they will think kindly of the dear old school and its faith- 
ful teachers, and it may be even drop a tear of regret 
when they learn that the Philadelphia School of Anatomy 
is only a thing of the vanished past. 



THE HISTORY 



OF THE 



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LADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY 



AND 



$ts Relations to $$tcbical Ceacjjittg. 



A LECTURE, 



DELIVERED MARCH 1, 1875, AT ITS DISSOLUTION, 



BY 

WILLIAM VV. KEEN, M.D., 

Lecturer on Anatomy and Operative Surgery in the Philadelphia School of Anatomy 



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